The photo that sealed his fate: 24 hours after
German police circulated this photo of Robin van Helsum they discovered
that he was a fantasist

Germany's 'forest boy' paid the price for his web of deceit in a Berlin court today as he admitted fraud.

Robin van Helsum tried to hoodwink the world by masquerading as an English-speaking orphan called Ray who was brought up in the wilderness of central Europe.

The 21-year-old was today ordered to perform 150 hours of community service after a hearing in Berlin held behind closed doors.

The Amstsgericht Berlin-Tiergarten took less than an hour to deal with Dutch-born Van Helsum, who stayed on in the German capital after his hoax was exposed last year.

The Dutchman's story story began in September 2011 when he pitched up at a Berlin town hall speaking broken English and claiming to be an orphan.

He said his mother Doreen had died in a car crash five years previously and that he had lived since then with his father, also called Ray, in woodland.

He said his father had died in the woods and that he had buried him and then 'walked to Berlin.'

The fact that his clothes were clean and he looked as if he had survived on more than foraged berries and nuts for half-a-decade did not stop authorities from providing him with shelter - particularly as he said he was underage.

Van Helsum soon became a sensation across Europe, hailed as the the boy with no memory who had lived like a modern-day Mowgli. People from across the world claimed him as their own.

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For eight months he lived at the expense of the German taxpayer, racking up a bill of £25,000 for benefits including pocket money, clothes and dental treatment.

Then in June last year the charade fell apart when German police took a photo of him, circulated it and discovered within 24 hours that he was a liar.

The forest boy had morphed into a lying Dutchman overnight.

'You got me,' Van Helsum said to police who came to evict him from the children's home where he had stayed.

It turned out he was a disaffected Dutch youth with a complicated home life and an illegitimate child in his home town of Hengelo.

He simply wanted to disappear off the radar and start a new life.

Possessions:
The bag Van Helsum was carrying when he 'emerged from the woods' and
appeared at a Berlin town hall. He said his mother had died when he was
12 and he had lived in the wilderness with his father

Left without a word: The house of the Van Helsum's father in Hengelo, the Netherlands. A court spokesman said today that the 21-year-old had made reference to a difficult home life, but did not elaborate further

Court spokesman Tobias Kaehne said he will avoid a criminal record if he agrees to the community service order.

He said that Van Helsum had made references in court to the 'difficult home life' that had lead him to concoct his fantasy world, but did not elaborate further.

'There was no conviction, as all parties in the hearing agreed. He admitted his guilt, and agreed to the 150 hours of community service,' said Mr Kaehne.

'If he fails to carry out the work it will come to a trial and probably a conviction. But as it stands now he will not have a record going into the future. This kind of agreement is made in the interests of young people's future.'

Last year, after he was booted out of care, he was pictured flipping hamburgers at a Burger King restaurant in Berlin but he has since quit his job.

'This is the price for Ray's lies,' crowed Berlin's BZ paper after Van Helsum was handed down the community service order.

But in the end he got away without having to pay back a penny to local authorities.